In a network computing environment, computers can be replicated in order to provide redundant sources of information. Specifically, the information on one computer can be copied onto one or more other computers in order to provide redundancy. For example, password server computers can be replicated in order to ensure that a password server computer is always available for use by a client computer. Each of the computers on the network communicate with one another through the use of a defined protocol.
Computers can be added and removed from the network as needed. Therefore, each computer needs to have information about the other current computers on the network in order to communicate. Typically, a computer will have an address list of all available computers. The list needs to be updated in order to find the other computers on the network. Each computer needs to have the address of the other computers in the network in order to contact each other.
A method for determining the network address of computers on the network requires a requesting computer to contact a network computer that maintains an updated list of network addresses. In this regard, one of the computers of the network maintains an updated list of updated network addresses for the other computers in the network. The requesting computer will know the address of the computer maintaining the list and contact that computer for the addresses of the other computers on the network. If the computer maintaining the list is disconnected from the network, then requesting computers cannot easily determine the addresses of the other computers on the network.
Another method of identifying computers on the network is to broadcast a message over the network seeking information about all computers on the network. When one of the computers responds, then the list of active computers on the network can be updated. However, this process can be time consuming and waste network resources.